Space Shuttle, Teacher Forced To Take Day Off

January 27, 1986|By Michael Hirsley, Chicago Tribune.

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — Teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe`s lesson plan for a ``classroom`` of millions was set back at least one day when Sunday`s launch of Space Shuttle Challenger was postponed because of threatened bad weather with low clouds.

McAuliffe, 37, the New Hampshire high school teacher selected to be the first ordinary American in space, waited here to re-enter the orbiter with six fellow crewmembers. Their launch was rescheduled for 8:37 a.m. Chicago time Monday.

Sunday`s scheduled 8:36 a.m. Chicago time launch was scrubbed after National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials here met and decided there was too great a weather threat to fuel the shuttle. It was to have been fueled in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, while the crew slept.

Vice President George Bush, who had announced plans to be here for the Sunday launch, will not attend on Monday because of his tight schedule, NASA officials said.

They were to meet late Sunday to evaluate Monday`s weather. Early on, it looked to be better than Sunday`s overcast skies. Other factors to be weighed include weather at Dakar, Africa, and Casablanca, Morocco, which are emergency landing sites if the mission is forced to abort and cannot return to the U.S. The unexpected Sunday afternoon forecast raised the threat of low morning cloud decks that might have turned the liftoff attempt into a cliffhanger. But space agency officials, who lost a gamble on one cold front Sunday and expected a second Arctic chill to plunge temperatures below the minimum for launch operations Tuesday, decided to bet on a Monday blastoff.

Delays in this Challenger mission are of particular concern because of NASA`s ambitious schedule of 14 and possibly 15 shuttle missions this year.

Waiting in the wings here for a March 6 launch is space shuttle Columbia. Timing is critical to its major objective of close-up observation of Halley`s Comet.

Columbia already has lost valuable time because of an unprecedented seven delays on takeoff and three on landing earlier this month. And since it had to land in California rather than here as intended, shuttle Columbia had to be rushed back to Florida atop a 747 jetliner so technicians could ready it for its quick turnaround use on March 6.

This week`s Challenger mission will also study Halley`s Comet. The orbiter will deploy equipment to make ultraviolet measurements of the comet`s tail. Also to be deployed is a second tracking-and-data relay satellite. NASA says this will make it possible for ground control and shuttles to communicate by voice, computer and television during 85 percent of any mission, compared to 55 percent of the time now.

Despite those important objectives, this mission`s highest profile tasks are McAuliffe`s two 15-minute ``lessons from space,`` now scheduled for Thursday.

PBS public television network expects to beam the classes live to 25 million grade school and high school students from Florida to Canada and Alaska.

Jesse Moore, assistant administrator for NASA space flight and newly appointed director of Johnson Space Center, said McAuliffe`s classes would not be jeopardized by a one- or two-day launch delay, which would push her designated time back to Thursday or Friday.

Even if the mission were postponed longer, Moore said, contingency plans exist so she can teach on a school day.

There might be some limits to students` enthusiasm even for classes from space, he added with a smile, ``We feel it would not be prudent to have her teach on a weekend.``